Do You Agree With Albert?
INTRODUCTION
I can’t seem to find the right words to begin a new chapter in my life. This is not only a research paper for a class in school any more. It symbolizes the beginning of what I have longed to do since I arrived at Santa Clara a few years back. I have had a yearning for a philosophy that makes sense to me personally; one that does not have to conform to anything I have studied so far. This is my chance.
Although the format I have chosen is not the most elegant, it does organize my thoughts in the clearest way. My thoughts are summarized like a diary starting with my initial impressions and quickly jumping from idea to idea in an effort to understand Fritjof Capra’s The Tao of Physics.
DAY 1—PRELUDE TO LITERATURE
Growing up as a young boy in Mallorca, Spain, I attended Sunday Mass with my mother and brother every week, never really giving it another thought—it was just something we did out of habit. I was content being a Roman Catholic for as long as I can remember until one very important episode in the fall of 1996. I was registering for my new high school (a Catholic one for the first time) when I noticed there was a special discount for practicing Catholics. Of course, to prove your religious affiliation, a letter from your Church’s pastor had to be submitted. This is when my faith in institutionalized religion took a major fall. For my family to be recognized as practicing at our church, a minimum sum of $250 a year had to be donated. Typically, my mother dropped in a few dollars when the collection basket was passed, but the parish had no way of determining how much had actually been donated. If there was no record of family contributions, the letter could not be written. To clarify this discrepancy, they offered a personalized envelope to drop into the collection basket to regulate how much money we actually donated. In one fell swoop, a $250 check was donated and a letter of recommendation yielding a $1000 waiver sent out. Beginning that day, I could no longer face the institutionalized Church and since then have looked for other sources of inspiration in different religions—particularly Eastern Philosophy.
The society of the Taliban is almost a polar opposite of that in the United States. The group looks at women as having little to no rights and believes that their holy book, the Quran, gives reasoning to the roles of women as virtually sexual objects in their society. Their political leaders were not elected into their positions, but took them by force. It operates fifteen courts of law in Southern Afghanistan in the...
Of course, as a Catholic, I am not opposed to the Church’s traditions, nor do I see them as inadequate. Since the Church is a human institution meant to represent the divine and is not divine itself, however, I feel that there must be room for improvement. For example, I recently became curious as to why women were still not allowed to become priests, so I decided to find out. I questioned two priests, my religion teacher, and numerous other practicing Catholics, and the best answer anyone could give me was, “That’s just the way we’ve always done it.” While traditions provide stability and unity within a group of people, to be unquestionably planted in tradition can restrict growth. How often do traditions that once held deep meaning fade to become mundane tasks too difficult to let go? Too often, I see the congregation of a church monotonously reciting the Lord’s prayer, a prayer which Catholics believe was spoken directly from the mouth of God, with little regard for its meaning, or singing a joyful song such as the “Alleluia” with a positively depressing expression. No fault lies within these traditions themselves, but only in the way we view them. The Church must remind its members of the purpose of every prayer, every symbol, and every law so that Catholics do not lose the meaning of their religion.
There are three main characters that the reader gets to see deal with grief in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. The first of which is the main narrator, nine year-old Oskar Schell. Oskar is in the denial stage of grief because he is keeping his father alive by going on one last grand adventure to find the story behind the key, thus keeping him alive. But of course, there is no reason for Oskar to have the key. Oskar tells Mr. Black, “There are so many ways to die, and I just need to know which one was his” (Foer, 257). Notice how his isn’t focusing on his father’s death here, he is focusing on the logic behind his father’s death. Right now, in his mind, it isn’t logical and therefore cannot be dealt with. Furthermore, it also detaches Oskar from the death because he views it more as a math problem than a traumatic event. He isn’t suggesting that he wants to know how his father died so that he knows what his last moments were like. He doesn’t want to know if he felt pain or if he was scared. He doesn’t even want to know, in this moment, why his father died; a question many of us would expect him to ask because, historically, many of us are still asking it. That’s not the emphasis he places on the question. Oskar wants to know how so he can categorize it, understand it, and move on without actually facing it.
The Taliban also require all women to wear a chadri (a veil that covers the woman's head, face, shoulders, and arms). In addition to veiling, which Lerner's book talks about, it is mandatory that women are accompanied by a man at all times when they are out in public. Also, women cannot wear brightly colored clothing or make-up under their chadri. In further attempt to keep women out of the public eye it is forbidden that women work. This is almost like what Mintz talks about in her book where in the 1950's women are not supposed to hold jobs or get a college education. In the 1950's it is for more of a social reason rather than law, but the same idea applies. Men frown upon the thought that their wives are more educated than them or that their wives have a job. Women are supposed to stay home and keep house.
A lot of attention has been drawn to the plight of women in Afghanistan. Many people understand what has been going on with the treatment of women in Afghanistan but very few understand. There should be more understanding of how women were treated before, during, and after the Taliban regime.
I come from a small family whose members include my immediate family. Like most Haitian-American living in my region, religion is a fundamental part of my upbringing. I was practically raised in a church and attended church three times a week as a child. Members of my church acted as parents to me and my sister and disciplined me with my mother consent. They played an active role in my upbringing and shaped my norms and taught me was considered appropriate and inappropriate. For example, I was taught to kiss adults and elders on the cheek when saying hello. I was told that I couldn’t address adults by their first name, and most importantly I was taught to always bite my tongue and always respect my
One day I had built up enough courage to ask a close Hispanic friend what would happen if he just “stopped” being Catholic, or could he even “stop” being Catholic? He simply said that he ...
Travesties are committed against women every day, in every country, in every city, town and home. In Afghanistan women are not only discriminated against, they are publicly reduced to animals. Women are deprived of basic human rights: they are not allowed to travel outside their homes without being completely covered by the traditional shroud-like burqa; they are not allowed to speak or walk loudly in public; they are not allowed to laugh or speak with other women; they are not allowed to attend school nor work; they are expected to be invisible; they are the ghosts of what were once educated, notable, and successful women. With their ruthless and extreme laws, the Taliban have effectively removed the physical presence of women in Afghanistan. The Taliban have stolen the very souls of these women and have turned them into the “living dead” of Afghanistan. The Taliban’s harsh restrictions and extreme religious laws have tainted the freedoms and basic human rights of the once valued and prominent women of Afghanistan.
In Afghanistan girls are forced into marriage as young as 8 years old. If these girls would run away or cause any trouble to their husbands the girls will get sonned, flogged or mutated. Before the Taliban took over the women were allowed to show skin, they were allowed to work and going to school, the women had rights. Then when the Taliban took control over Afghanistan the women weren't allowed to go to school, study, work, they couldn't show any skin, couldn't leave the house without a male chaperone, or get health care from men, and the women couldn't speak in public or be involved in politics. the women's rights were taken away from them. Women in Afghanistan should have more rights because women are getting attacked, they are forced
A law was recently passed that made it illegal to smoke in your car with a child. I believe this is a very good and healthy law that should be respected. When you smoke in a car with your kids or any child, you expose children to the greater risk of catching a very dangerous disease, such as cancer. This is why we should not smoke in a car in the presence of children. Children are considerably affected when an individual is smoking nearby and the risk increases if an individual smokes in a car.
Looking at a story, the key word, story, we looked at the little albert study. Albert B, or Little albert was a boy who back in 1920, that was studied by a behaviorist John Watson. It was study in which a loud noise, like a loud bang on a bar, happened behind Little Albert, when he was given some type of small furry object or other objects. Watson showed that the research went very well, when in reality, that may not have been the case, and the identity of Little Albert is not fully known.
Mead, Frank S., and Samuel S. Hill. Handbook of Denominations in the United States. Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 1995. Print.
Around 1886 Albert Einstein began his school career in Munich. As well as his violin lessons, which he had from age six to age thirteen, he also had religious education at home where he was taught Judaism. Two years later he entered the Luitpold Gymnasium and after this his religious education was given at school. He studied mathematics, in particular the calculus, beginning around 1891.
Oskar believes that the key is somehow connected to his father and decides to embark on a mission to find the key’s owner. He believes that this will help him make sense of his father’s death and he goes to every person in New York who shares the last name to find the key’s owner. In his adventure of self-discovery, he makes new friends and forms unique experiences that help him take his mind of his father’s death. The people Oskar meet all share some grief in some way. Eventually Oskar finds out that the key is vaguely connected to his father and was in the vase his father bought in an estate sale and that the key opened a safe box. Through sharing his story, Oskar helped everyone he met to overcome their sorrows and they also helped him cope with his own. The experience allowed Oskar to share one last adventure with his father. Within Oskar’s story, Foer incorporates the stories of Oskar’s grandfather and grandmother. Oskar’s grandparents were both survivors of a WW2 bombing in Dresden, Germany. Oskar’s grandfather is mute
In this moment in time, there is no assurance as to where writing will take me as I follow this pathless “woods.” However, I hope that at the end of my journey, this decision will make all the difference as well.